Stylish Statements – A Woman's Worthhttps://awomynsworth.com
Aiming a Black feminist lens at popular cultureSun, 27 Sep 2015 05:16:28 +0000en
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1 http://wordpress.com/https://s0.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngStylish Statements – A Woman's Worthhttps://awomynsworth.com
4 Natural hair mistakes you learned from your motherhttps://awomynsworth.com/2015/09/28/natural-hair-mistakes/
https://awomynsworth.com/2015/09/28/natural-hair-mistakes/#commentsMon, 28 Sep 2015 18:06:00 +0000http://awomynsworth.com/?p=1286Six years ago, I shaved my head bald and didn’t look back. I rocked that buzz cut until a few months ago when I wanted to mix things up and grow my hair back. I decided to go 100 percent no-heat natural this time rather than the press and curl I’d worn in high school and part of college. Yet after several years without hair, I didn’t quite know how to take care of the new growth. I went back to methods from the ’90s that I’d learned from my mother. Luckily, friends helped me quickly realize my main mistakes.

Mother always knows best… but you may have to school her on a few natural hair faux pas.

The Teeny Weeny Afro (TWA) seems to be the stepchild, twice removed, in the natural hair family. When scrolling down my Pintrest and Tumblr feeds, and reading the latest natural hair articles, I see box braids, buzzed cuts, faux locs, twists, curly afros, and others, but rarely TWAs. When they do make an appearance, they are usually with loose curls—not the 4b/4c texture I’m working with.

Last week, when I took out my faux locs and saw my awkward, 2-inch TWA, I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the sight. Read more…

Writer’s note: Hi everyone. I got published on For Harriet again this week. So you can read the full text there.

]]>https://awomynsworth.com/2015/05/27/twa/feed/3awomynsworthTWA5 Natural Hair Styles for Busy Black Girlshttps://awomynsworth.com/2015/04/16/natural-hair-for-busy-black-girls/
https://awomynsworth.com/2015/04/16/natural-hair-for-busy-black-girls/#commentsThu, 16 Apr 2015 15:00:00 +0000http://awomynsworth.com/?p=1127Five years ago, I got tired of being a naturalista. I’d been natural my whole life. Bantu Knots, flexy rods, pin curls, and twists were my nightly and morning regimen. And frankly, I was sick of all the time I spent on it.

Many natural black girls understand my woes. Unless we’re wearing a protective style, we can rarely post an #IWokeUpLikeThis selfie without firstteasing and manipulating our hair. At 18, I didn’t want to deal with it anymore. SoI chopped it all off and I rocked a perfectly convenient, beautiful buzzed cut.

People thought I was so bold. Some applauded me for not being “another black girl with a weave” (eye-roll), and praised me for embracing my features. Little did they know, I was just too busy to bother with it.

As a girl who is currently pursuing three careers at once, I’m busyAF. That extra 30 minutes some of my natural diva friends take in the mornings to fix their hair, I’m cranking out a blog post. That evening time before naturalistas go to bed, when they break out the flexy rods and hair clips, is spent driving home from my late-night classes and falling into my bed to sleep for a few hours before I wake up and head off to my 9 to 5.

For chicks who have a main job and a side hustle, hair sometimes has to take a back seat…read more on Blavity.

Hey Fam. This article was originally published on Blavity. Check it out there. Hope you enjoy

]]>https://awomynsworth.com/2015/04/16/natural-hair-for-busy-black-girls/feed/1awomynsworthShae Hair TrasformationNatural Hair vs. Weaves: It’s Time to End this Battlehttps://awomynsworth.com/2014/07/21/natural-hair-vs-weaves/
https://awomynsworth.com/2014/07/21/natural-hair-vs-weaves/#commentsMon, 21 Jul 2014 19:30:17 +0000http://awomynsworth.com/?p=877Last week, The Root published an article criticizing a meme that made fun of black women who wear weaves.

Writer Jenée Desmond-Harris pointed out that this meme makes various assumptions about black women and their hair.

Contrary to what I expected, when I scrolled through the comments, tons of people agreed with the meme. Many of them argued that all black women who do not wear their hair in a natural style are struggling with low self-esteem, internalized racism, and self-hate.

In order to pull some folks out of this shallow, misguided thinking, I immediately felt the need to write this post. Let a buzzed-cut girl (who’s been natural her whole life) break it down. It’s passed time to end this hair feud.

In defense of weaves and wigs:

Now I won’t sit here and act like internalized racism isn’t an issue in our community. Some people have been taught (at very young ages) that nappy hair is ugly and unkempt. Sometimes weaves, relaxers and other hair trends are an expression of the internalized black hate that has been in our world for centuries.

However, not every girl with a weave has internalized racist views about her hair.

Wearing a weave doesn’t automatically mean you have low self-esteem or self-hate just like wearing natural hair doesn’t automatically mean you’re confident. Michelle Obama wears a weave. So does Janet Mock, Oprah, Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington, Beverly Bond (Creator of Black Girls Rock), and many other powerful women. These women have to have a certain level of confidence in order to make it as far as they have.

Oftentimes women wear weaves for protective styling and convenience. Sometimes it’s easier to throw on a cute wig or wear a weave rather than raking through your hair and styling it all the time. Natural styles, including locs, can take quite a bit of time and effort to maintain.

In defense of Naturalistas:

Being natural isn’t always easy. It takes a lot of courage to be natural in a society that has an all-around hate for natural hair.

Natural girls get very little love in the mainstream, as very few of our major pop stars wear their hair natural when they’re in the spotlight. You hardly find natural hair in Hollywood, fashion, or even the White House (Wouldn’t it be cool to see FLOTUS rockin some double-strand twists). Natural hair is still pretty revolutionary, because unfortunately, our world still has an obsession with European standards of beauty Unfortunately, our naturalistas are penalized and attacked for wearing their natural hair in various situations. Locs and afros are often viewed as unprofessional in a work environment, several private schools have banned little black girls from wearing afro puffs, and black women in the military have recently faced stricter regulations on certain natural styles.

Yet, natural hair has become on-trend lately. Tons of women are having the Big Chop, and there are beauty bloggers, tons of Pintrest, Tumblr, and Instagram accounts dedicated to natural hair.

Yes, we do need to teach that black hair is beautiful in its natural state, but we don’t need to shame others for straighter styles.

There are benefits and drawbacks to both natural hair, weaves, and relaxed hair. People do what works best for them.

At the end of the day, who died and made anybody the hair police? Browsing the internet, you’ll find memes making fun of natural girls and shaming girls with weaves. So whether you wear a weave or your own hair, small-minded people will talk shit either way. If you have a problem with anyone’s hair type or texture, this is all I have to say to you:

Mind ya business, that’s all. Just mind ya business. If it ain’t growing out of your scalp then you have no need to comment or feel any type of way about it.

As I’ve been transitioning into this whole “grown woman” thing, or whatever you want to call it, I’ve been playing with a little bit of makeup. I still consider myself a Makeup Minimalist, but I’ll throw on some mascara every now and then–and you know I have a thing for blue lipstick.

Lately though I’ve been feeling orange lips–maybe because it’s the perfect color to begin the summer.

I have 2 orange colors I’m working with now.

A Cheap, off-brand MAC that I found while shopping downtown. It doesn’t even have a name, but it does the trick.

Another cheapy product that I saw in the beauty supply called Ruby Kisses “Shiny Orange.” I was instantly drawn to the color. So I paid the $2 (right after I checked a few online reviews), took it home, tried it on and instantly fell in love.

I put both colors on top of a brown lip liner (Otherwise I’d walk out the house looking like I dyed my lips with Kool Aid. That brown lip liner is a life saver).

Anyways, since summer is here I figured I’d give you all a few summer style posts. Check out the Stylish Statements section of A Womyn’s Worth for more.